Research of influence a physical carrier on the characteristics for four-element circular antenna array

Abstract

The main problem arising in the development of mobile-based antenna arrays is the problem of taking into account the influence of the carrier body on the characteristics of such an antenna array. Pilotless vehicle are one of the most popular directions of modern aviation development. It is aimed to consider a quite simple in design four-element annular antenna array and to analyze the influence on the bearing direction finding characteristics of such a mobile carrier which is a pilotless vehicle. Theoretical consideration of the carrier body effect on the bearing direction finding errors is usually reduced to the problem of electromagnetic waves diffraction on conducting objects. Comparison of some absolute bearing direction finding errors obtained by the phase correlation method for the cases of placing the antenna array in free space and on the array carrier is given. The results of the calculation of the root-mean-square values dependence on the frequency, averaged over all the analyzed angles of the radio wave direction of arrival, are presented. The dependences of the root-mean-square value on the azimuth angle of the radio wave direction of arrival for the cases of the antenna array placement on the carrier body and in the free space averaged for all the analyzed signal frequencies were calculated.